The Next Generation: Monica Lucio
Monica Lucio is the eldest daughter of Anita Afraid of Bear. In the Q&A below, she discusses how Lakota traditions helped her come to understand herself while answering her lingering questions about religion. Now, she wants to pass those traditions on to the next generations.
Q: How would you describe your role within the Sun Dance?
A: I would say a leadership role. I’m the oldest of the living grandchildren. My auntie Loretta has taken me by the hand and has guided me. I started dancing in the Sun Dance in 2010, but for the past two years, I haven’t been able to continue dancing due to back problems. But I do take my nieces and nephews, and teach them and help them with their questions about culture and the ceremonies that our family does. My aunt Loretta, grandma Beatrice, and Uncle Al showed us kids a lot of the ways when we were younger. He (uncle Al) had stories, and a lot of knowledge that he told me when I was 8 or 10 that I still remember.
Since I’ve started Sun Dancing in 2010, it has really been the most impact that I’ve had in my life as far as both my grandmas Beatrice and Rita letting me know about why we do the things we do and what they stand for so that I can turn around and let my siblings know, and also my nieces and nephews. And now, this year, I have a couple grandchildren that I’m going to start teaching about our culture.
Q: It sounds like it was just part of life. Do you ever remember choosing it?
A: Growing up I remember coming to see my grandma every summer. My mom and grandma would explain to us when we were going to get water about what the water means, and the reasons why they would grow their own vegetables, and it was always just part of my life. Growing up, I was baptized Mormon. So I was able to grow up and live these different religions. But when you’re born into a culture like the Native American cultures, it is just a part of you and when you find it it is so much easier to understand. When I was a teenager going to the mormon church, it was hard for me to understand. I had a lot of questions, and I always felt like my questions weren’t being answered. But just talking to my grandmas and my grandpas, everything that they said just made sense. I could feel it within myself, like I don’t have to question this, I could just feel it. Everything they were telling me was like a big puzzle, and all of the stories that they were telling me were putting it together, and that puzzle was me and where I come from.
My children, ever since they were little, I think my daughter Vanessa first started helping with the tree at Sun Dance when she was four. And my younger son Collin, by the time he was 3 years old he knew how to burn cedar and pray and smudge people off. You can tell, especially in children, they don’t question it, they just do it. You just have to watch them through their actions that they already know that this is part of them. To me it is amazing.
Q: How do you see your role in making sure that future generations also will know about these traditions and ceremonies?
A: I’ve been told many times, for what feels like my whole young woman life ever since I decided to get married and have children, my grandmas, aunts, mom have pretty much let me know, guided me and helped me and told me this is your destiny, your calling, what creator wants for you. Just watching what they do, the people they meet, how they go about bringing everybody together, what it takes to get these ceremonies going, I’ve been watching them for many years, and the past 15 or 20 years, my auntie Loretta has been telling me that “once we’re gone, you’re going to have to step up. I’m teaching you this so that when it becomes time, and we pass it on to you, I want you to be prepared. This is what it entails to become the matriarch of your generation. They’re big shoes, and I’m ready to fill them.”
Q: Do you have any hopes or vision for the next couple of generations?
A: One of my goals and aspirations for our next couple of generations: for one, lots of people come to me and tell me they need help and want to learn about our ceremonies. I want to be able to pass knowledge on and give them the tools so that when they start having children, they can remember the things that I said just the way I remember the stories my grandmother told me. I loved hearing the stories of when my grandma was a little girl, but as I got older I started to wonder why she used to tell me those stories. As I got older I realized that it’s because she’s not going to be here for much longer. She won’t be here forever. This is why I want my nieces and nephews, my granddaughter, to hear these stories, but not in a way that’s boring, but in a way so that they will have an epiphany later in life. That’s how I want to take my knowledge and hand it off to the next couple of generations.